Arbitration season starts today for Angels' eight

Today begins the salary arbitration filing period for players with at least three, but no more than six, years of service time. That includes eight Angels this year.

Here's how it'll all play out:

• Today through January 15 is the filing period. The filings tend to come late, with all eight of the Angels arbitration-eligibles last year filing on the final day. At any point in the process the sides could agree on a contract for 2011, but if they don't they'll move to the next stage:

• On January 18, players and teams exchange salary figures. At this point, we should see a lot of deals made quickly. Last year, for instance, Howie Kendrick, Jered Weaver, Mike Napoli and Reggie Willits reached agreements the same day they exchanged salaries with the team. Maicer Izturis agreed to his three-year deal six days after the exchange. Joe Saunders agreed nearly two weeks after the exchange, two days before arbitration hearings were to being around the league. Erick Aybar and the team settled on February 18, a month after exchanging figures and just before a hearing. Any cases that don't settle go to the next stage:

• Hearings begin on February 1 and go through February 21. An arbitration panel decides whether the player will earn what he asked for, or what the club offered -- no in between. These hearings are rare, usually fewer than a half-dozen per season throughout baseball. Last year, the Angels and Jeff Mathis went to arbitration and Mathis won, earning the $1.3 million he had asked for instead of the $700,000 the Angels offered.

It's not ironclad, but usually the two sides will eventually settle right around the midpoint of their figures (often exactly at the midpoint) and avoid arbitration. Bigger gaps tend to mean longer disputes. Mathis asked for nearly double what the Angels offered, for instance. Aybar last year asked for a million dollars more than the Angels offered, and ultimately settled far lower than the midpoint figure. (Both asked for a lot more than I had predicted based on similar players.)

Earlier this offseason I looked at comparables for each arbitration case to see how much the Angels would likely pay out. My estimates (with links to the reasons):

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